The move comes just days after Centre requested restrictions on Instagram accounts of Pakistani cricketers Shahid Afridi and Babar Azam, actors Mahira Khan and Fawad Khan, and singer Atif Aslam.
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Other popular personalities whose accounts have also been restricted in India include Hania Aamir, Ali Zafar, Sanam Saeed, Sajal Aly, Iqra Aziz, Imran Abbas, Bilal Abbas, and Momina Mustehsan.
These restrictions follow a larger crackdown that began with Centre requesting a ban on 16 Pakistani YouTube channels, including news outlets like Dawn News, Samaa TV, Geo News and ARY News. The channels were blocked for broadcasting provocative, false and communally sensitive content targeting India.
The tightening of digital access and public influence of Pakistani figures comes in the wake of the April 22 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which claimed 26 civilian lives.
Following a briefing to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), where cross-border links to the attack were cited, India launched a series of retaliatory measures against Pakistan.
These included downgrading diplomatic ties, expelling Pakistani military officials, suspending the Indus Water Treaty, and closing the Attari land transit post. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said these steps were necessary as Pakistan continued to offer safe havens to terror networks targeting India.
In a tit-for-tat move, Pakistan responded by suspending the 1972 Simla Agreement, blocking its airspace to Indian carriers, shutting the Wagah border, and halting all bilateral trade. Islamabad also declared that any diversion of water from the Indus River system would be viewed as an “Act of War”.